“Oh, sh-t” I thought as I sat there looking at the motorcyclist on the ground.

I had tried to make a quick U-turn (where maybe I shouldn’t have) and a motorcycle trying to zip around me on the right clipped my bumper and him and his bike went tumbling down.

He quickly got up and got in my face as I still sat in the drivers seat.

“Give me $1000 now for the damage on my bike!” He shouted as his bike laid in the street.

“Hey, I got insurance buddy,” I said in my muffled Spanish.

Then… “Wham”!

A big noise made me cinch my face muscles. I looked over my shoulder and I couldn’t believe my eyes!

While the motorcyclists bike laid there in the street and he was arguing with me to give him a quick buck, another car came and run over his motorcycle!

It was now completely wrangled around the under-organs of the car that just passed over it.

The bike now totaled. Before, it was damaged but he probably could have just drove off.

Now, there were two angry Ecuadorians yelling at each other and me to one side. You see, in Ecuador during a car accident I think the locals think that whoever can yell the loudest will be granted the right of way.

Within a few minutes the police showed up.

Immediately, the police said all the vehicles would be impounded until a traffic court could determine guilt, unless we could work something out.

Then he asked for our documents.

License and registration.

And to my surprise, but I suppose not uncommon in Ecuador, both the motorcyclist and the other car driver had no license nor proper registration.

So the policeman quickly looked to me, the calm, bewildered foreigner with the proper documents and said to me… “give the motorcycle guy $100, give that car driver $150 cash… and get out of here.”

My truck just had a few scratches on it after-all.

“Yes, officer,” I said joyfully and away I went!

That’s how a car accident more or less works in Ecuador.

The wild west? Yea, with these kinds of things I’d say so.

STORY PROVIDED BY …

Jack Abercrombie, a guy from Atlanta who has been living in Ecuador a few years now.